Gerald Kersh wrote a lot of great creepy short stories. (A
few are cornball but the majority are good solid chillers.)
His most famous book is 'Night and the City' which was twice
filmed. Haven't read it yet but it sits on my shelf.

Incidentally, his brother Cyril Kersh also wrote novels.
Though his 'Aggravations of Minnie Ash' (a hysterically funny
book about a widowed Jewish mother trying to raise her 2
children in north London during WWII) is as far from Gerald
Kersh's noir world as you can get. I remember as a kid
(14/15) my father once getting them mixed up and buying a
Gerald Kersh collection. He was pretty dismayed with with his
purchase. But his burn was my score.

Al, thanks. I didn't think of Paul Cain because Fast One and
Small Crimes don't have a lot (if anything) in common. I know
you've talked about Erskine Caldwell before and I still need
to look up the books of his you've recommended, but if you've
got book recommendations for Benjamin Appel, Edward Anderson,
Richard Hallas, James Ross, James Curtis, Gerald Butler and
Gerald Kersh I'd love to hear them.

--Dave Z.

--- In rara-avis-l@ yahoogroups. com, "Allan Guthrie"
<allan@...> wrote:>> I guess you're writing neo-hardback- noir rather
than neo-paperback-
noir,> Dave. Very classy!>> The book that instantly sprung to mind from the
reviewer's
description of> the kind of "grim noir novel" he's thinking of, is
Paul Cain's Fast
One. But> to answer your own question -- about noir writers as
defined by
Jack Bludis> rather than the reviewer -- in addition to the
writers Jeff
mentioned,> there's also Benjamin Appel, Nathanael West, Edward
Anderson,
Erskine> Caldwell, Richard Hallas, Dorothy Hughes, James
Ross, James Curtis,
Gerald> Butler, Gerald Kersh and no doubt a bunch of others.
Certainly noir
exploded> in the late 40s with the arrival of the paperback
original, but it
was doing> okay in hardcover much earlier.>> Al>> ----- Original Message -----> From: "Dave Zeltserman" <dave@...>> >A review in the London Times favorably compared
my latest book,
Small> > Crimes, with: "the kind of grim noir novel they
used to write in
the> > Thirties and Forties. There are no good guys,
only men who are
mean,> > vicious, tough, corrupt and amoral. Action is
frenzied and bloody,> > women easy but vulnerable, dialogue curt and
the plot not
necessarily> > convincing."> >> > To me this raised the question, who was writing
these types of
grim> > noir novels in the 30s and 40s?? The only
writers I could think
of were> > James M. Cain, Cornell Woolrich and David
Goodis (at least he
started> > in the 40s). If the reviewer had mentioned the
50s instead it
would've> > made more sense as it would've opened up a host
of other writers,> > including Charles Williams, Gil Brewer, Dan
Marlowe, etc. So
here's the> > question--who else other than the writers I
mentioned were
writing noir> > novels in the 30s and 40s (noir with Jack
Bludis's definition of> > screwed as opposed to dark +
sinister)???>